Help25:Menus Menu Item Article Categories

How To Access

To create a new List All Categories Menu Item:

• Select Menus → [name of the menu] from the drop-down menu on the back-end of your Joomla! installation (for example, Menus → Main Menu).
• Click New to create a new menu item.
• Click the Menu Item Type Select button and then click the List All Categories link under Articles.

To edit an existing List All Categories Menu Item, click its Title in Menu Manager: Menu Items.

Description

Used to show a list of Categories. Categories are shown in a hierarchical list, as shown below. Depending on the selected options for this layout, you can click on a category Title to show the articles in that category.

Screenshot

Front end Screenshot

Column Headers

Required Settings

This layout requires that you select a starting top-level category. This is done in the list box shown below.

To include all article categories, select Root. Otherwise, select the desired top-level category. All child categories of the selected category will show in the layout.

Categories Options

The Categories Options allow you to control various aspects of this layout, as shown below. If you select Use Global for any option, the value from the Article Manager Options will be used.

• Top Level Category Description. (Use Global/Hide/Show) Whether to hide or show the description of the top-level category. Note that this description can be overridden for this layout by entering a Top Level Description below.

• Top Level Category Description Override. Enter an optional description to override the category description for this layout. If the Top Level Description option is set to Show, this entered description will show instead of the normal category description.

• Subcategory Levels. (Use Global/All/1-5) The number of levels of subcategories to show in the layout. Select All to show all levels in the subcategory hierarchy.

• Empty Subcategories. (Use Global/Hide/Show) Whether to hide or show categories that contain no items.

• Subcategories Descriptions. (Use Global/Hide/Show) Whether to hide or show the category description of subcategories.

• # Articles in Category. (Use Global/Hide/Show) Whether to hide or show the count of articles in each category.

Category Options

Category Options control the appearance of the screen when you click on a category link. The following options are available.

• Category Title. (Use Global/Hide/Show) Whether to hide or show the title of the category.

• Category Description. (Use Global/Hide/Show) Description of this category, which can optionally be displayed in the front-end.

• Category Image. (Use Global/Hide/Show) Whether to hide or show the category image.

• Subcategory Levels. (Use Global/All/1-5) The number of levels of subcategories to show in the layout. Select All to show all levels in the subcategory hierarchy.

• Empty Categories. (Use Global/Hide/Show) Whether to hide or show the categories that contain no content items or subcategories.

• No Articles Message. (Use Global/Hide/Show) If set to Show, the message 'There are no articles in this category' will display when a category contains no articles.

• Subcategories Descriptions. (Use Global/Hide/Show) Whether to hide or show the category description of subcategories.

• # Articles in Category. (Use Global/Hide/Show) Whether to hide or show the count of articles in each category.

Blog Layout Options

When you drill down to a category, you will normally be in a list or blog layout. Which one will depend on the settings in the Article Manager Options and the Category Edit Basic Options. Blog Layout Options control the appearance of the category drill down if that results in a blog layout. Important Note: If there is a Category Blog menu item defined for a category, the drill down will navigate to that menu item and the options for that menu item will control the layout. The options here only take effect if there is no menu item for a category.

• # Leading Articles. Number of Articles to show using the full width of the main display area. "0" means that no Articles will show when using the full width. If an Article has a "Read more..." break, only the part of the text before the break (the Intro text) will display. Leave blank to use the default value from the component options.

• # Intro Articles. Determines the number of Articles to display after the leading Article. These Articles will display in the number of columns set in the Columns parameter below. If an Article has a "Read more..." break, only the text before the break (Intro text) will display, followed by a "Read more..." link. The order order in which to display the articles is determined by the Category Order and Article Order parameters below. Leave blank to use the default value from the component options.

• # Columns. The number of columns to use in the Intro Text area. This is normally between 1 and 3 (depending on the template you are using). If 1 is used, the Into Text Articles will display using the full width of the display area, just like the Leading Articles. Leave blank to use the default value from the component options.

• # Links. The number of Links to display in the 'Links' area of the page. These links allow a User to link to additional Articles, if there are more Articles than can fit on the first page of the Blog Layout. Leave blank to use the default value from the component options.

• Multi Column Order. In multi-column blog layouts, whether to order articles Down the columns or Across the columns.
  • Use Global: Use the value from the component options screen.
  • Down: Order articles going down the first column and then over to the next column, for example:

article 1	1 (continued)
article 2	article 4
article 3	article 5

• Across: Order articles going across the columns and then back to the first column, for example:

article 1	1 (continued)
article 2	article 3
article 4	article 5

• Include Subcategories. (Use Global/None/All/1-5). If None, only articles from the current category will show. If 1-5, all articles from the current category and subcategories up to and including that level will show. If All, all articles from the current category and all subcategories will show.

• Category Order. Order of Categories in this Layout. The following options are available.
  
  • Use Global: Use the default value from the component options screen.
  • No Order: Articles are ordered only by the Article Order, without regard to Category.
  • Title Alphabetical: Categories are displayed in alphabetical order (A to Z)
  • Title Reverse Alphabetical: Categories are displayed in reverse alphabetical order (Z to A)
  • Category Manager Order: Categories are ordered according to the Order column entered in the Category Manager.

• Article Order. Order of articles in this Layout. The following options are available.
  
  • Use Global: Use the default value from the component options screen.
  • Featured Articles Order: Articles are ordered according to the Order column entered in Article Manager: Featured Article.
  • Most recent first: Articles are displayed starting with the most recent and ending with the oldest.
  • Oldest first: Articles are displayed starting with the oldest and ending with the most recent.
  • Title Alphabetical: Articles are displayed by Title in alphabetical order (A to Z)
  • Title Reverse Alphabetical: Articles are displayed by Title in reverse alphabetical order (Z to A)
  • Author Alphabetical: Articles are displayed by Author in alphabetical order (A to Z)
  • Author Reverse Alphabetical: Articles are displayed by Author in reverse alphabetical order (Z to A)
  • Most Hits: Articles are displayed by the number of hits, starting with the one with the most hits and ending with the one with the least hits
  • Least Hits: Articles are displayed by the number of hits, starting with the one with the least hits and ending with the one with the most hits
  • Article Manager Order: Articles are ordered according to the Order column entered in the Article Manager.

• Date for Ordering. The date used when articles are sorted by date. The following options are available.
  • Use Global: Use the default value from the component options screen.
  • Created: Use the article created date.
  • Modified: Use the article modified date.
  • Published: Use the article start publishing date.

• Pagination. Hide or Show Pagination support. Pagination provides page links at the bottom of the page that allow the User to navigate to additional pages. These are needed if the Articles will not fit on one page. An example is shown below.
  
  The following options are available.
  • Use Global: Use the default value from the component options screen.
  • Auto: Pagination links shown if needed.
  • Show: Pagination links shown if needed.
  • Hide: Pagination links not shown. Note: In this case, Users will not be able to navigate to additional pages.

• Pagination Results. Hide or Show the current page number and total pages (e.g., "Page 1 of 2") at the bottom of each page. Use Global will use the default value from the component options.

List Layout Options

The List Layout Options control the appearance of the category drill-down page when that is presented as a Category List. The following options are available:

• Display #. (Use Global/Hide/Show) Whether to hide or show the Display # control that allows the user to select the number of items to show in the list. An example is shown below.
  
  If there are more items than this number, you can use the page navigation buttons (Start, Prev, Next, End, and page numbers) to navigate between pages. Note that if you have a large number of items, it may be helpful to use the Filter options, located above the column headings, to limit which items display.

• Filter Field. The Filter Field creates a text field where a user can enter a field to be used to filter the articles shown in the list. An example of how this looks in the front-end layout is shown below.
  

The possible options for this (in the back-end menu item edit) are shown below.

• Use Global: Use the value from Article Manager→Options.
• Hide: Don't show a filter field.
• Title: Filter on article title.
• Author: Filter on the author's name.
• Hits: Filter on the number of article hits.

• Table Headings. (Use Global/Hide/Show) Table Headings show a heading above the article list, as shown below.
  
  If set to Show, this heading will show about the list. Otherwise the list will show with no headings.

• Show Date. This option allows you to show a date in the list. The options are as follows.
  

• Use Global: Use the value set in Article Manager→Options.
• Hide: Don't show any date.
• Created: Show the created date.
• Modified: Show the date of the last modification.
• Created: Show the start publishing date.

• Date Format. Optional format string to control the format of the date (if shown). If left blank, the date will use the DATE_FORMAT_LC1 format from the language file (for example, "D M Y" for "31 December 2012" or "m-d-y" for "12-31-12"). See PHP Date Documentation for more information.

• Show Hits in List. (Use Global/Hide/Show) Whether to hide or show the number of hits for this item.

• Show Author in List. (Use Global/Hide/Show) Whether to hide or show the name of the author.

• Pagination. Hide or Show Pagination support. Pagination provides page links at the bottom of the page that allow the User to navigate to additional pages. These are needed if the Articles will not fit on one page. An example is shown below.
  
  The following options are available.
  • Use Global: Use the default value from the component options screen.
  • Auto: Pagination links shown if needed.
  • Show: Pagination links shown if needed.
  • Hide: Pagination links not shown. Note: In this case, Users will not be able to navigate to additional pages.

• Pagination Results. Hide or Show the current page number and total pages (e.g., "Page 1 of 2") at the bottom of each page. Use Global will use the default value from the component options.

• # Articles to List. The number of articles to include in the list. Select the desired number from the list box.

Article Options

The List All Categories Layout has the following Article Options, as shown below.

The List All Categories Layout has the following Article Options, as shown below. In addition to Yes/No or Hide/Show, these options allow the "Use Global" setting. This uses the default value from Article Manager Options.

The Article Options are as follows.

• Show Title. (Use Global/Hide/Show). Whether or not to show the Article's Title.

• Linked Titles. (Use Global/No/Yes). If the Article's Title is shown, whether to show it as a link to the article.

• Show Intro Text. (Hide/Show) Hide or Show an Article's Intro Text when the 'Read more...' link is selected. Intro Text is the part of the Article before a 'Read more...' break. If this parameter is 'Show', when the User selects the 'Read more...' link, the entire article will display, including the Intro Text. If this parameter is 'Hide', when the User selects the 'Read more...' link, only the part of the Article after the 'Read more...' link will display.

• Show Category. (Use Global/Hide/Show). Whether or not to show the Article's Category.

• Link Category. (Use Global/No/Yes). If the Article's Category is shown, whether to show it as a link to a Category layout (list or blog) for that Category.

• Show Parent. (Use Global/Hide/Show). Whether or not to show the Article's Parent Category.

• Link Parent. (Use Global/No/Yes). If the Article's Parent Category is shown, whether to show it as a link to a Category layout (list or blog) for that Category.

• Show Author. (Use Global/Hide/Show) Whether to show the author of the Article.

• Link Author. (Use Global/No/Yes). If the Article's author is shown, whether to show it as a link to a Contact layout for that author. Note that the author must be set up as a Contact in Contact Manager: Edit.

• Show Create Date. (Use Global/Hide/Show). Whether or not to show the Article's create date.

• Show Modify Date. (Use Global/Hide/Show). Whether or not to show the Article's modify date.

• Show Publish Date. (Use Global/Hide/Show). Whether or not to show the Article's start publishing date.

• Show Navigation. (Use Global/Hide/Show). Whether or not to show a navigation link (for example, Next or Previous article) when you drill down to the article.

• Show Voting. (Use Global/Hide/Show). Whether or not to show the a voting icon for the article.

• Show Read More. (Use Global/Hide/Show). Whether or not to show a "Read More" link to allow a drill down to the entire article.

• Show Title with Read More. (Use Global/Hide/Show). If set to Show, the Article's title will show in the "Read More" button.

• Show Icons. (Use Global/Hide/Show). If set to Show, Print and Email will use icons instead of text.

• Show Print Icon. (Use Global/Hide/Show). Show or Hide the Print Article button.

• Show Email Icon. (Use Global/Hide/Show). Show or Hide the Email Article button.

• Show Hits. (Use Global/Hide/Show). Show or Hide the number of times the article has been hit (displayed by a user).

• Show Unauthorised Links. (Use Global/No/Yes). If Yes, the Intro Text for restricted articles will show. Clicking on the "Read More" link will require users to log in to view the full article content.

Integration Options

The List All Categories layout has the following Integration Options.

These determine whether a news feed will be available for the page and what information it will show.

• Show Feed Link. (Use Global/Hide/Show) Whether to Hide or Show a link to a news feed (RSS Feed). If set to Show, a Feed Link will show up as a feed icon in the address bar of most modern browsers).

• For each feed item show. (Use Global/Intro Text/Full Text) If Intro Text, only the article's intro text will show in the feed. Otherwise, the entire text of the article will show.

Common Options

See Menu Item Manager: New Menu Item for help on fields common to all Menu Item types, including Details, Link Type Options, Page Display Options, Metadata Options, and Module Assignments for this Menu Item.

Toolbar

At the top right you will see the toolbar:

The functions are:

• Save. Saves the menu item and stays in the current screen.
• Save & Close. Saves the menu item and closes the current screen.
• Save & New. Saves the menu item and keeps the editing screen open and ready to create another menu item.
• Save as Copy. Saves your changes to a copy of the current menu item. Does not affect the current menu item. This toolbar icon is not shown if you are creating a new menu item.
• Cancel/Close. Closes the current screen and returns to the previous screen without saving any modifications you may have made.
• Help. Opens this help screen.

Quick Tips

• Categories can be "nested" into levels, similar to folders on a disk drive. In theory there is no absolute limit on the number of levels you can have. However, as a practical matter it is recommended to keep the levels to a minimum. The Show All Categories layout may not work correctly if the number of levels shown is greater than five.
• If you set up category titles as linkable, the user can drill down on the category. When they do, they will normally see either a Category List or Category Blog layout, depending on which option is selected. If there is a pre-existing menu item for this category (for example, a Category Blog menu item), then that menu item will show in the drill down and the options set for that menu item will control the page display. Otherwise, the options set for the current Show All Categories menu item will control the page display.
• You can set the option to drill down to a list or blog in two places.
  • In Article Manager Options you can set the default value for all categories.
  • In Category Manager: Edit you can set a value for a specific category. If this is set, it overrides the default value.

Related Information

• Categories are created using Category Manager: Add or Edit.
• To create a new menu see Menus Menu Manager.